"Through wisdom is a house built; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall every room be filled with precious and pleasant riches."
~ Bible
Buffy woke to the sound of her phone ringing. She frowned at him and said to Spike, “We have got to program some numbers into this damn thing. I can never decide to answer it or not.”
Spike reached over and took the phone and answered it, “‘Lo?”
He held the phone away from his hear at the sound of Dawn shrieking into his ear. He squeezed his eyes shut as she continued to scream out loud, “Oh my God, Oh my God, it really is you and you are answering Buffy’s phone which means you guys are finally together and oh my God!!”
Then her voice suddenly changed and she yelled into the phone, “You big meanie. I cried for you. Buffy almost died for you and you didn’t even tell us you were back. Buffy loved you so much and you didn’t even care enough about us to come see us. You died again and never even told us you were alive. How could you do that to your family? How could you Spike? Why did you?”
Spike didn’t say anything because he didn’t really have a straight forward answer so Dawn continued her angry screams, “Spike I’m coming to kick your ass. I hear you are in Vegas. I will be arriving the day after tomorrow and I plan to kick your ass all the way back to Hell or wherever you went when you died twice. I’m not happy. You almost killed Buffy. You realize she sat day after day and cried for you and mourned you? She was way worse over you than she ever was with Angel. With Angel, she moved on but with you, I didn’t think she was going to make it. According to the story I overheard with Willow and Giles she freaking died because of you. You’d better treat her right mister or I’ll be dusting your sorry ass in a heartbeat. Do you hear me?”
Spike spoke up at this point and meekly replied into the phone trying to calm Dawn down, “Yes nibblet I hear you. I’m sorry I didn’t call. I was a ghost then I wasn’t a ghost and Angel said you guys were all better off without me and I believed him like the wanker I was.”
Dawn sighed into the phone, “If Angel wasn’t already dead I would so dust his sorry ass. Anyway tell Buffy that I’ll arrive the day after tomorrow and I’ll catch a cab and you need to leave me your new address? Ok? Have to go, ciao.”
Spike chuckled but felt really bad about not letting Buffy and Dawn know he was alive. He leaned over giving Buffy a gentle kiss that tried to share how sorry he was. He then whispered softly pulling her even closer, “I’m so sorry I never told you and the bit I was alive. I was just being a wanker and a sorry excuse for a vampire. I imagined you and I going back to how we were 4 years ago. Where I toddled behind you and you yelled at me and called me names and maybe even kicked me in the head. Then I figured best-case scenario was that you’d come to visit me sometimes and then leave kicking me in the head as you go. I was a wanker and a poof, forgive me Buffy?”
Buffy noticed the tears in his eyes and she whispered, “I’m still hurt over that but I definitely forgive you. You can spend the rest of our immortal lives making it up to me starting with letting me spend money on furniture and paint and curtains and everything else that makes a house complete. When did Dawn say she was arriving?”
Spike replied quietly as he still could hear the words Dawn had spoke echoing around in his head, “Day after ‘morrow.”
Buffy nodded thoughtfully as her mind raced with the necessary items, “Well I need more clothes, as do you. We need furniture, tons of it in fact. We need bedding and towels and rugs and dishes and oh God, are we going to be able to handle all this work?”
Spike shrugged, “I paid for the house and we signed the deeds at least, it’s ours. That was supposed to be the hardest part.”
Buffy smiled and agreed, “Quick shower, then house decorating.”
“Are we inviting the wolf boy and Red to come along?”
Buffy shook her head replying gently even though her mind was still lost in plans for the next day, “They were at a concert late last night and he has a show tonight so I don’t think they will be able to come along.”
Spike chuckled, “Probably best. We really need to get this house in order so we can call it a home.”
Buffy grinned as she pushed herself up and out of the bed racing to the shower, “Last one to the shower has to wait on the other.”
She threw open the shower door and closed it as Spike’s hand caught the door and forced it open, “No way, my fiancée. Now that you’re mine, we shower together. It’s a rule.”
Buffy laughed putting her hands on her hips, “There’s a rule about fiancée’s showering together?”
Spike smirked. “Sure is. Made by yours truly.”
Buffy reached over and turned on the water and slapped at his hand that had snuck up to try to circle her hips, “Well we best not break that rule but no hanky panky. We need to go decorate our house.”
Spike nodded and reluctantly agreed knowing it was best, “No hanky panky.”
An hour later Buffy was pulling on Spike’s arm making a sales associate follow after them to write down the items they wanted for their new house. Buffy let out a moan of pleasure at the sight of a comfortable looking leather sofa set and turned towards Spike with sad eyes, “We can’t afford it.”
Spike looked at the price as his eyes danced with pleasure, “We can, pet. You didn’t spend your budget in the kitchen remember?”
Buffy pulled the list from the sales associate without even asking for it and Spike patted the guy on the shoulder as Buffy ticked off the items and prices on her fingers, “I can’t add this, you do the math please?”
She batted her eyes at Spike who spoke out loud, “$699 so 700 on the table and chairs since they were on sale. $700 again for the hutch that is on sale. So $1,400 for the dining room. $100 short there. For the kitchen, two bar stools for $40 a piece so another $120 under so that’s $320 so far pet that’s under budget. In the bedroom you picked that gorgeous Richmond bedroom set that was antique white and we had to of course get the King’s size bed so that was $1190 dollars which was an amazing price and left us under budge $310. So Buffy, love, that’s over $600 so far. Then for the two spares you bought matching queen size Cambridge 4 poster beds for $679, which again was a perfect price. Buffy these prices are amazingly under budget. We had said between $1,000 and $1,500 for the guest rooms. You got 6 pieces for each for under $700. So really I don’t see why we can’t do the Linden Street leather sofa collection you wanted. I’ll ask Xander to built you a black mantel piece to match the set over the fire place if you want sweetheart.”
Buffy smiled clapping her hands for joy, “So we can get the sofa set?”
Spike nodded and handed the paper back to the sales associate who grinned eager to place the expensive sale, “You guys picked a great day to shop at J.C. Penny’s. It’s the close out sale for the year. Couldn’t have picked a better day to do all this shopping.”
Spike agreed then turned to Buffy ignoring the salesman, “Since we are under budget, Buffy do you mind if I pick out a few items for the porch?”
Buffy shook her head still admiring the gorgeous black leather sofa imaging breaking it in the first time. She would be naked against the sofa leather and he would be pumping into her pushing her back against the soft leather, which would be a perfect contract to Spike’s hard and chiseled body. She snapped out of her daydream realizing that Spike was talking to her and she blushed bright red, “Huh?”
Spike raised an eyebrow at her wondering why she was blushing but decided to ask her about it later when they didn’t have an audience as he repeated himself, “He wanted to know if we wanted these delivered later today. Everything we have ordered so far is in stock and today they have that free delivery sale going on.”
Buffy bounced on her toes, “Oh yes, today would be perfect.”
She glanced over at the black leather couch and Spike took her hand to guide her out of the salesman earshot, “I can’t wait to get you naked against that soft leather.”
Buffy blushed and whispered back, “That’s what I was imagining as well.”
Spike smirked but said no more following the sales rep to the patio furniture section.